美 공군 F-35A 스텔스 전투기 소프트웨어 업그레이드 관련 기사

 

美 공군이 도입, 시험평가 운용중에 있는 F-35A Lightning II 스텔스 전투기 초기 도입분에 대한 소프트웨어 업그레이드

관련 기사 입니다.

 

(강조 표시는 임의로 한 것 입니다.)

 

 

Air Force Maps Out Strategy For Upgrading All Early-Lot F-35As To Block 3F

Posted on InsideDefense.com: February 13, 2014

 

The Air Force is planning a single- or multi-block upgrade of at least 80 Joint Strike Fighter aircraft delivered with software packages that include limited or no combat capability, with the aim of making them fully combat-capable. The move will add yet more near-term cost to the F-35 program but, the service hopes, lower the life-cycle cost of those aircraft over time and prevent the airplanes from being relegated to daytime training missions.

 

At this point, service officials are not so much debating whether to improve the capability of those aircraft, and a case can be made that the jets should stay in their current configurations while the Air Force fills out its fleet of a projected 1,763 F-35s. Instead, the service is working to define the most efficient way to perform those upgrades.

 

The two primary options are to wait until a more advanced software load, Block 3F, is available around 2018, or to incrementally upgrade those jets to interim software blocks, like 2A and 2B, until 3F is ready. The latter process could begin as soon as fiscal year 2015, service officials said, and appears to be the preferred option, pending the results of a cost analysis.

 

Those modernized aircraft would then be used in training and mirror the fleet of F-35s flown by operational units. In contrast, the Air Force's other fifth-generation fighter -- the F-22 -- is being put through a rigorous and expensive upgrade after production ended.

 

Similar to past aircraft acquisition programs, F-35s have been delivered to the Air Force and other users with increasing capability as time has passed. But the unprecedented level of concurrency built into the JSF acquisition construct means that the first 100 aircraft or so will need to be upgraded -- some on the margins, others more significantly -- to even be considered for operational deployments. The first software load deemed to have limited combat capability is called Block 2B and should be available late next year, while the block expected to contain vastly more combat options, Block 3F, is scheduled to complete flight test in late 2017.

 

By that time, aircraft coming off of Lockheed Martin's production line will be delivered with many or all of the high-end systems that make the F-35 unique already functional. Individual JSF owners, though, will have to decide how capable previously delivered aircraft should be, and at what cost. That burden mainly belongs to the Air Force and Marine Corps, which own on the order of 90 percent of all F-35s in the field today, as laid out in a chart detailing aircraft deliveries provided by Lockheed Martin spokeswoman Laura Siebert.

 

That Lockheed-developed chart lists the tail number of every F-35 delivered as of early January, its model type -- conventional, short-takeoff-vertical-landing, or carrier-variant -- its owner, and the software block it was loaded with when it left Lockheed's Fort Worth, TX, factory. The Air Force and Marines each have received around 40 airplanes, while the Navy, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands each own a handful of their respective models.

 

Among the Air Force's current fleet, 15 are Block 1 jets, while 21 were delivered as Block 2A aircraft and will be updated to Block 2B. As funded today, the service would procure 47 aircraft in the sixth and seventh production lots that will be delivered as Block 3i F-35s, according to press releases issued by Lockheed and the program office after those contracts were agreed to. That would bring a conservative estimate of the total fleet requiring block upgrades in the first seven production lots to 83 aircraft, not including any test platforms. That estimate also does not include any units procured in Lot 8; that lot will also be made up of 3i aircraft but is still being negotiated between Lockheed and the government, so the quantity of F-35As included in it is not yet official. It is likely to number close to 20, though.

 

The currently confirmed figure, 83 aircraft, represents around 5 percent of the Air Force's F-35A program of record.

 

In a recent interview, Air Force Col. Sam Shaneyfelt and Lt. Col. David Chace told Inside the Air Force the service is committed to bringing all of its jets up to Block 3F, budget-permitting, as opposed to essentially cutting its losses on the early aircraft and leaving them in a role capable only of basic flight and training operations. Shaneyfelt and Chace are the chief and deputy chief, respectively, of the F-35 system management office at Air Combat Command, which will be responsible for operating the F-35A in the Air Force. ITAF traveled to Langley Air Force Base, VA, to meet with them.

 

"Congressional appropriations and authorization is the second step, but we planned in our [future years defense program] to fund the block upgrades to take all of our aircraft all the way up to a 3F," Chace said.

 

Cost, mission and concurrency considerations

 

The decision to upgrade the fleet in some ways plays into the worst aspect of concurrency, the simultaneous development and production of aircraft, which has led and will lead to costly modifications to already-delivered products just to make them operationally relevant. Those expenses would have been minimized had the Pentagon waited until the program was more mature before beginning procurement. on the other hand, Shaneyfelt and Chace made the case that leaving F-35s the Air Force has already bought in a substandard configuration unwisely limits their utility, creates logistical challenges, increases sustainment costs and probably necessitates funding to upgrade legacy aircraft.

 

The Air Force intends to declare initial operational capability with Block 3i software in 2016. The Marine Corps hopes to reach IOC a year earlier, likely putting even more pressure on the Corps to upgrade its F-35s as soon as developmental progress and available funding allow.

 

The costs of hardware and software upgrades needed to get early-production F-35 jets up to a fully operational level will come on top of the price the Air Force has already paid to buy the aircraft. According to data provided by Lockheed Martin, the unit recurring flyaway cost for the F-35 began at $214 million in LRIP 1 and has fallen -- although some have questioned these statistics -- to $98 million for LRIP 7.

 

The aircraft that will require the most serious modifications to be able to reach Block 3F functionality were built in the first five production lots and delivered with Block 1A, Block 1B or Block 2A software. Those aircraft cost: $214 million for LRIP 1, $159 million for LRIP 2, $127 million for LRIP 3, $110 million for LRIP 4, and $106 million for LRIP 5, Lockheed's Siebert said. Funding for these modernizations is included in the future years defense program, according to Chace and Shaneyfelt, but would require approval from Congress. And Chace said all Block 1A airplanes have been bumped up to Block 1B already.

 

Chace said the projected cost of modifying specific airplanes is still coming together, and that price tag is sure to vary based on what F-35 is being upgraded, when that modification is performed, and what standard the jet is brought up to. Chace deferred more detailed information on the likely cost to the F-35 program office, which did not respond to multiple calls and emails requesting comment. He and Shaneyfelt also did not respond to a series of follow-up questions provided to Air Combat Command on Feb. 3.

 

Ongoing analyses are studying whether it is more cost-efficient to wait until Block 3F is released to the fleet and then start upgrading aircraft, or start doing so relatively soon. If the cost difference is negligible, Chace said the Air Force's preference by far is to start improving the quality of its fielded aircraft right away.

 

"When you look at the way this program is planned out, it's going to be a couple of years until 2B, and a couple of years until 3F, so from a training perspective and to maximize our use out of an asset we've already paid for, we're asking and we're looking into the process to upgrade it to the next block as early as we can," he said.

 

As an example of the benefit of incremental upgrades, Chace cited the process by which the Air Force clears its airplanes to fly at night and in poor weather. Joint Strike Fighter aircraft must be in a Block 2 configuration or above to fly in anything other than sunny, daytime conditions, so leaving any aircraft in Block 1 mode would render them useless in perpetuity at night or in weather. Additionally, having aircraft in multiple software configurations -- like Block 2A, 2B, 3i and 3F -- would necessitate separate airworthiness certifications for each, creating considerable work and cost for the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center.

 

Having many small fleets of block-specific F-35 aircraft also drives up sustainment costs, Chace and Shaneyfelt said. That idea is consistent with the Air Force's emerging philosophy of operating relatively large fleets of multirole aircraft and divesting itself of single-mission platforms, like the C-27J, MC-12, and possibly the A-10 and KC-10.

 

"If we were to elect to maintain our aircraft in say a 1A, or 1B, or even a Block 2 when everything else is running on 3F, I now have a small fleet of aircraft that have different components than the greater 3,000-airplane fleet or more aircraft," Chace said. "So now if I maintain aircraft with a different configuration, whether it's a core processor, or different software, a different antenna, then I have to pay more money to maintain the supply pool, the labs, the test assets, to maintain that fleet. In the end, if you spend a couple million dollars per airplane to upgrade them to subsequent blocks, over the long run of operations and sustainment, you save your money."

 

Additionally, the Air Combat Command officials suggested it is smartest to train a pilot to the maximum extent possible in his training unit before transferring him to an operational unit that could deploy into an active conflict. That strategy ensures the pilot can focus on warfare tactics, rather than aircraft flying qualities, once he arrives at the operational wing. To enable that situation in the F-35 community, training squadrons would have to have Block 3F aircraft available for training, rather than Block 1 or 2 jets.

 

The other option, keeping aircraft as they are today until Block 3F is ready for fielding, would appear to create a post-production upgrade program similar to the multibillion-dollar effort developed on the F-22, a source told ITAF. Those Raptor aircraft are being outfitted today mainly with truly modernized systems, but also with some capabilities that were part of the jets' original requirement set. The same could potentially occur on the F-35 depending on each of the services' preferences.

 

Modification expectations

 

Moving from one version of a block to another -- from 1A to 1B, for instance -- is supposed to involve only software refreshes, which cost less, take less time and make aircraft available to the fleet more quickly than hardware work. But Chace said the Air Force had to perform some hardware changes when it modified its Block 1A jets to a 1B configuration, and the same is likely to occur as production F-35s start to move up from Block 2A to Block 2B.

 

Upgrading from one block to its successor is more significant and more costly. Chace acknowledged that moving aircraft from Block 1B to Block 2A will require hardware and software changes, and the jump from Block 2B to Block 3i will be even more demanding. The contents of Block 2B and 3i software are nearly identical, but they run on different hardware, including a new core processor that is critical for Block 3 capabilities.

 

"In theory, an upgrade from a 1A to a 1B is software-only," he said. "An upgrade from a Block 1 to a Block 2 subsequently requires a combination of hardware and software. Within Block 2, 2A and 2B, that's just software, in theory. We'll see. As time goes on, if they find there's a hardware component that would be appropriately changed at the right time, it could be then." He referred to the jump from Block 2B to Block 3i, and subsequently to Block 3F, as "a much bigger modification hardware-wise because you're changing the core processor."

 

Where these modifications would be performed, and by whom, remains something of an open question for Block 1 and 2 aircraft. But the move from Block 3i to Block 3F is projected to be fairly straightforward and involve only a software refresh, so Chace said the Air Force hopes to make those changes with field teams and avoid having to bring those F-35s to depot maintenance facilities.

 

One exception to the entire discussion surrounding early-production JSF jets is the status of the F-35 program's test aircraft. At Edwards Air Force Base in California and Naval Air Station Patuxent River, MD, test jets have been upgraded over time as the developmental test program has advanced from one block to the next, Lt. Col. Mark Massaro said in an interview. Massaro, the director of operations for the 461st Flight Test Squadron and a JSF test pilot, said some of the aircraft in his fleet were designed for test, and at least two were designed as production F-35s but then reassigned for testing following a major program review several years ago. No matter their origin, those aircraft have been upgraded sequentially as newer software and hardware configurations become available, he said, and they will eventually be outfitted with Block 3 capability. -- Gabe Starosta

 

 

 

  ⓒ Lockheed Martin

 

  ⓒ Lockheed Martin

 

  ⓒ Lockheed Martin

 

  ⓒ Lockheed Martin

 

  ⓒ Lockheed Martin